Home of much of our planet’s rainforests, it comes as no surprise that climate change ranks as a message of top importance in the country of Brazil. As such, these Olympics have visually placed a priority on renewables, including the design of a beautiful yet never-realized solar/hydro generating waterfall.

While this is great marketing, one tends to wonder about the reality of renewables in Latin American countries like Brazil —with significant political distractions in many Latin American nations, is the renewable market able the thrive?

The answer, generally, is yes. And, with a large penetration of hydro and biofuels, Brazil is doing particularly well — 70 percent of the country’s electricity comes from hydro generation. In recent years, environmental concerns have threatened the continued growth of both of these non-carbon emitters, and the Brazilian government has reacted with a successful push into wind and solar.

To accomplish wind and solar growth, Brazil has offered tax relief at both the federal and state level. Beginning in 2009, the Brazilian government has also employed “reverse auctions” for both wind and solar. In these auctions, regulators set a $/MWh cap and let competing renewable companies bid down the price. This practice is growing worldwide; recently, we wrote about its application in Poland.

Reverse auctions have worked elsewhere in Latin America, as well. Earlier this year, Mexico had an overwhelming success in its first attempt at a solar auction. In response, Greentech Media researchers predicted that Mexican solar generation would increase by 521% in 2016. GTM lists several reasons why renewables in Mexico are a strong investment at the moment — headlining the list are cheap labor and government backed PPAs. These factors are at play in Brazil as well.

But what about less developed Latin American countries? While there may be increased concern about the viability of renewables in these poorer regions, these countries may also represent the greatest development potential. High costs of fuel in lesser developed countries, compared to low operational costs of renewables, makes developing Latin American countries ripe for the picking for foreign developers.

Bolstering the argument for renewable investment in several Central American countries is the 2013 completion of the Central American Electrical Interconnection System. CAEIS tethers a growing list of countries, from Guatemala to Panama, allowing them to freely trade energy and take advantage out each other’s renewable resources.

In bringing it back to Brazil, it is clear that they, and other developed Latin American countries, are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to renewables — and foreign investors have been comfortable in putting their money there, too. Moving forward, the real value may be in moving on prospects in lesser developed countries, where fuel costs are high. Growing infrastructure such as CAEIS helps to make these investments more secure.

That being said, Latin America is a large continent, and each member country has its own particulars. This can make managing renewable investments in each complicated, but a quality investment lifecycle management system offers assurances for investors and developers alike. Being able to identify quality projects, mitigate risk and make smart investment decisions based off real-time project data allows energy producers to bring more successful projects online.